Our final project of the course provides you with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of a particular issue that is related to American public education and relevant to a school or schools in Rhode Island. Your research and instruction will help the rest of the class appreciate the issues involved as well.
For this project, you will work in a team of four or five students to complete two different project components: an online background research summary and an in-class lesson on your team’s issue. The background research consists of a collection of annotated bibliographies (article citations and summaries) dealing with questions related to your issue.
As a team, you will decide on at least four research questions that are related to your issue, and each team member will locate and summarize at least five articles related to one of these questions. The team’s background research page will combine these summaries to form a collection of articles around the original issue.
Each researcher should include the following types of articles to investigate his or her research question:
At least one editorial or opinion essay from a reputable locally or nationally recognized print or online news source (e.g., The Providence Journal, Slate, The Washington Post)
At least one informational article from a magazine such as Newsweek, Time, or reputable newspaper such as the NYTimes.
At least two articles from scholarly or professional journals, such as Educational Leadership, The Science Teacher, The English Journal, etc.
At least one report from a reputable database (per CML instruction) such as CQ Researcher or a .gov report.
For each article, you should include the following:
Its citation in APA style.
One paragraph that summarizes the article.
One paragraph that presents your reaction to the article, including how you think it informs our concerns about Rhode Island schools.
Each individual’s annotated bibliography, as well as the team’s background research page, will be posted in on this wiki to serve as a resource for class members as well as for future education students at URI. Each team is responsible for creating a wikipage that contains the following:
A team home page containing a brief overview of your issue and a summary of the contribution of each team member
A concept map showing how the specific question for each team member relates to the major policy issue.
The second component of this project is a presentation of your research. Each group will have approximately 30 minutes to teach the class as much as possible about the group's particular issue. Each group's lesson must include both background information and an engaging instructional activity with an assessment component. Background information can include verbal presentations, videos, powerpoint slides, posters, etc. Activities can include application tasks, games, discussions, skits, you name it - you are the teachers! Assessment should be creative and should not include a simple "did you pay attention?" regurgitation test. Part 2 will be evaluated on how effectively it informs and engages the class. The presentation evaluation rubric is posted here.
Additional Instructions
Each team should complete its background research and represent its results in the form of annotated bibliographies on the wiki by the first presentation date. The research page should be linked to the Final Project Fall 2015 page. Each team member should complete his or her background research on a separate page created from the Student Template, following the instructions on the template page and linking to his or her team’s page.
Resources for Conducting Effective Research
To prepare our presentations, we'll research specific questions related to our issues with the guidance of the librarians in the Curriculum Materials Library.
As your team is completing its background research, you should meet often to decide what is important to share and how you will engage the class so that we learn what you think is important. Class time will be available, but you may also need to meet outside of class. Your goal should be to push us beyond a “common sense” understanding of your issue and present more than one side of any controversies that exist.
You will teach on one of the last two dates that class meets. We will decide who presents on each date before Thanksgiving break.
Educational Policy Issue Research
Introduction
Our final project of the course provides you with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of a particular issue that is related to American public education and relevant to a school or schools in Rhode Island. Your research and instruction will help the rest of the class appreciate the issues involved as well.
For this project, you will work in a team of four or five students to complete two different project components: an online background research summary and an in-class lesson on your team’s issue. The background research consists of a collection of annotated bibliographies (article citations and summaries) dealing with questions related to your issue.
As a team, you will decide on at least four research questions that are related to your issue, and each team member will locate and summarize at least five articles related to one of these questions. The team’s background research page will combine these summaries to form a collection of articles around the original issue.
Each researcher should include the following types of articles to investigate his or her research question:
For each article, you should include the following:
The research evaluation rubric is located here.
Each individual’s annotated bibliography, as well as the team’s background research page, will be posted in on this wiki to serve as a resource for class members as well as for future education students at URI. Each team is responsible for creating a wikipage that contains the following:
- A concept map showing how the specific question for each team member relates to the major policy issue.
- Links to each student's research page
The Final Project Team Page Template should serve as a guide.A team home page containing a brief overview of your issue and a summary of the contribution of each team member
The second component of this project is a presentation of your research. Each group will have approximately 30 minutes to teach the class as much as possible about the group's particular issue. Each group's lesson must include both background information and an engaging instructional activity with an assessment component. Background information can include verbal presentations, videos, powerpoint slides, posters, etc. Activities can include application tasks, games, discussions, skits, you name it - you are the teachers! Assessment should be creative and should not include a simple "did you pay attention?" regurgitation test. Part 2 will be evaluated on how effectively it informs and engages the class. The presentation evaluation rubric is posted here.
Additional Instructions
Each team should complete its background research and represent its results in the form of annotated bibliographies on the wiki by the first presentation date. The research page should be linked to the Final Project Fall 2015 page. Each team member should complete his or her background research on a separate page created from the Student Template, following the instructions on the template page and linking to his or her team’s page.Resources for Conducting Effective Research
To prepare our presentations, we'll research specific questions related to our issues with the guidance of the librarians in the Curriculum Materials Library.As your team is completing its background research, you should meet often to decide what is important to share and how you will engage the class so that we learn what you think is important. Class time will be available, but you may also need to meet outside of class. Your goal should be to push us beyond a “common sense” understanding of your issue and present more than one side of any controversies that exist.
You will teach on one of the last two dates that class meets. We will decide who presents on each date before Thanksgiving break.